Boggs tabbed as Westside's new coach

The last time Westside principal Henry Adair had to hire a football coach was 28 years ago. So forgive him for taking a little extra time to find someone who he thought could fill the void left by former coach Ted Luckadoo.

After nearly four months, Adair recommended current Walhalla coach John Boggs for Westside's football post and athletic director position to the Anderson District 5 school board. The board was unanimous in its decision to hire the 18-year coaching veteran Tuesday.

"I told the board when we made the presentation that I didn't want them to think we took so long because we couldn't find anyone," said Adair, who took Luckadoo's retirement in November after a brilliant career the hardest of anyone. "The reason we took so long is because I wanted to recommend to them the person that was best for the job."

In his eyes, Boggs fit the bill to take over a Rams team that has fallen on hard times with one win in Luckadoo's final two seasons.

In eight years at Walhalla, Boggs went 28-52 with just one .500 season. Although the Razorbacks knocked on the door to the postseason a few times, Boggs never got them there.

Adair, however, has always stressed that there are more important values in high school athletics than winning.

"Our main goal was to find a good person that fit the Westside community," Adair said. "We could tell by the interview we had with him and all the people we talked to that he's a good person, a good family man and that he builds good relationships with students and student-athletes."

Boggs, a University of Tennessee-Chattanooga alum, has always admired Westside from a distance.

"When I first got into coaching, I always looked at Westside as a great school with a good athletic reputation. I thought it would be a great place to one day have an opportunity and that was 18 years ago," Boggs said. "To me, it was one of those things where you have a shortlist of jobs where you say it'd be nice to coach there some day and this was one of them."

Under Boggs, the Razorbacks were generally known as a spread offense with prolific numbers during quarterback Rob Middleton's time there. However, this season Boggs made a switch to the option.

His ability to adapt to his talent caught Adair's eye.

"You can't recruit your talent," Adair said. "So we were looking for somebody who wasn't going to come in and say, 'This is the offense I'm going to run, this is the defense I'm going to run.' We wanted someone who was going to look at the talent pool and then decide what they are going to run."

During the interview process, Boggs stressed the need to install the same system in every feeder program all the way up to the varsity team.

"You want to put a system together that is easy to teach and at the same time it's easy to adapt," Boggs said. "That's why we have different pieces to our offense. We don't always use every piece each year, but that's why you mold your pieces to what your personnel is.

"It sounds kind of crazy that you're jumping from one system to another but our number system and formations and all that, they're all the same from when those kids are eight, nine, 10 years old and all through the system."

Although the outcome of games is far down Adair's priority list, he had a feeling that wins would come sooner rather than later.

"John's going to build a program and teach these kids, discipline, teamwork and about life," he said. "And I have no doubt wins will come with that."